The Difference
by Circus4APsycho8
Summary: *Main Quest Spoilers* When the Female Sole Survivor gets back from The Institute, she needs a little help from MacCready.


**[Sanctuary]**

It had been three days since Nora had teleported to the Institute, and they still had no word from her, and probably wouldn't until she showed herself.

MacCready sighed anxiously. There was no doubt about it; he was extremely worried about her. Had her stubborn and headstrong personality finally killed her? Or was she in the Institute?

He shook his head. He couldn't think like that. Not until they had proof.

Another day passed without any sign of Nora.

Now MacCready was restless. He had been mad he couldn't go with her, but then again, this was her fight she needed to finish.

 _God, just let her be okay...after all she's done...she doesn't deserve to-_

"R-Robert?"

He had never heard her voice so weak, so small. At first, he thought it was someone else, but when he turned around...

...it really was her.

There she stood, Nora herself, dressed in a greaser jacket and jeans. Although, something was different about her. She still had her assault rifle and her grenades and knives on her, her hair was still styled the same way...

...but her eyes...her eyes were what killed him.

They were filled with...a blankness he could almost relate to.

She was in his arms before he even asked her a question; her head was planted on his collarbone, tears streaming down her face. Slowly, they crumbled to their knees, and she was caught in his embrace; crying rivers of water, unable to stop.

[ { } ]

She calmed down, eventually.

Nora hadn't spoken a word since she said his name. Now she was clinging to MacCready like he was her only lifeline. He felt her heart beat within her; it was a steady, yet somehow broken rythym. His fingers were tangled in her dark hair; right arm wrapped protectively around her back.

He thought she fell asleep at one point, so he carried her to the nearest bed in Sanctuary.

[ { } ]

 _Nora, awake in a sleeping bag in a room in Red Rocket, rubbed her tired eyes. Sleep never came easy anymore._

 _"Hey, honey,"_

 _Her eyes shot open at his voice; the voice she thought she'd never hear again._

 _"Nate?" She asked._

 _He materialized in front of her and smiled. "Hi, hun." He held Shaun in his arms._

 _"I think I overdid it on the Jet..." she muttered._

 _His face softened. "Let us go, hun. Fight for us. Live for us. We already died. Don't make it in vain."_

She shot up, gasping.

"Nora?!"

She turned towards the voice.

"Oh, Robert..." she laid back down.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." He looked down at her, brushing her hair behind her ear.

"It's okay," she whispered.

After a few moments of silence, Nora spoke up.

"Do you know what the difference between living and surviving is?"

MacCready looked down at her, then said: "Living...it's being happy, not having to fight for your life every single day and night, being able to have the latest technology at your fingertips, being clean, living your life to the fullest, embracing your potential..." he sighed. "Living...and that's just the beginning. But, surviving, it's fighting for your life every single second, a kill or be killed world, a change or die world, either/or..."

She nodded, her eyes staring up at the ceiling. "I used to live. I could go outside without having to worry about being sniped or attacked. I could run free. I could travel in a car, have luxuries, a life..." she tensed, "but I took it all for granted! I was careless. I was making good money. I had a good life."

He listened with interest.

"And then the bombs came and screwed everything over," she said, almost yelling. Robert took her hand, but it seemed to have little to no effect. "my life was taken away. Life in general was taken away. Innocent people were killed, dammit, so many were killed!" She cried, tears pricking at her eyes. "Now I'm surviving. Now I know how stupid I was, to not care. I mean, the only thing I had to worry about pre-war was caring for my family, paying my taxes, making money..."

"I can't imagine," MacCready said.

"And I can't believe it. That, at one point in my life, that was all I had to worry about." She gave a dry chuckle, then sighed. "Now look at the world."

He nodded.

She was silent for a few more minutes.

"Shaun...he's not dead..." she whispered more to herself than MacCready.

"What...?" MacCready asked.

"Sixty years before I escaped the Vault, they kidnapped him. They brainwashed him into thinking synths were good, that the Institute was good. They brainwashed my goddamned _little boy_!" She yelled.

MacCready, speechless, could only hold her hand tighter.

"They brainwashed my baby, killed my husband, and took everything I had left in this god forsaken Wasteland!" She yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Nora sat up, burying her face in her hands. MacCready embraced her again, wrapping his arms around her.

"But it's people like you," she whispered, "like you, Danse, Hancock, Cait...hell, even Preston and Piper, that make life in this forsaken Wasteland easier." She turned to MacCready, "Especially you."

He gave her a sad smile.

She leaned the back of her head on his chest.

"Don't leave me, Robert Joseph..."

"I'm not," he whispered.


End file.
